Two Dancers Retire
by RobinxRaven writer
Summary: At the end of the ball, Elizabeth asks to spend more time with Makoto before he awakens and she has to return to her journey of saving him.


A/N

First Persona fic, I tried to channel the P3 Elizabeth rather than the wackier P3D/PQ interpretation.

~Two Dancers Retire~

"So how much longer do we plan on dancing?" Yukari asked, looking around at the others gathered in the V.I.P room. She tapped one foot in rhythm to the music, the dance lights in the walls and hanging from the ceiling changing with each tap of her foot. When Junpei and Mitsuru turned to look at her, she gave a shrug. "Well, we can't stay here forever, you know? Even if we have all the time in the world to dance." She looked between everyone, and was mostly met with agreeing nods.

"Even though it is fun…" Ken said, swinging his feet as he sat in a nearby tall chair.

"I agree. We can't stay here forever." Mitsuru turned to Elizabeth. "Since the feud with your younger sister has been dropped, when will we be allowed to leave?"

"Hm." Elizabeth snapped her fingers once and the music stopped while the lights stopped flashing. "I suppose we have been dancing for a while… Very well. If you're all in agreement, I will send you back to your world. As was previously discussed, you will not retain any memory of tonight's events."

"That's fine with us." Mitsuru replied. "This turn of events may have been unexpected and admittedly fun, but we will not suffer over our lack of memories from this experience."

Everyone looked at each other, murmuring in agreement before turning back to Elizabeth. Dancing wasn't something that would normally be on their minds anyways, and as a result none of them had any objections.

"If you will all follow me, we will return to your dormitory rooms and I will return you to the real world where you are all fast asleep." Elizabeth led the way out of Club Velvet, her persona compendium in her left hand as the members of S.E.E.S. stretched and yawned behind her. Since there was no need to recreate the entire Iwatodai dormitory, the door to each person's room was lined up in one hallway. "Alright Aigis-san, you're first."

"Tonight has been fun. I will see you all in the morning." With a wave, Aigis went into her room and when the door closed, it vanished and left a smooth wall in its place.

"I really hope that's safe for us…" Junpei muttered.

Elizabeth turned to him and nodded. "Of course. I would never bring harm to any of my guests friends intentionally."

Makoto just nodded when everyone turned to him, and walked alongside Elizabeth at the front of the group. One by one, his friends bade goodnight and went into their rooms to awaken the next day with no lingering exhaustion in their systems. At the end of the warmly lit hallway, the pair stopped outside of Makoto's door and turned to face each other. "And here is your room." Elizabeth opened the door for him, and he walked in ahead of her. When he was halfway to his bed, Makoto turned around and looked at Elizabeth, still standing in the doorway. "Would it be alright if I made a small request of you?" She looked up from the ground and at his nod, stepped into his room and closed the door behind her.

When she had visited his room for the second time in order to make an accurate representation within the dream, Elizabeth discovered that not much had changed since her first visit. A couple of motivational posters on the wall (that Makoto told her had been left over from the previous owner), a sink, one mini refrigerator filled with soft drinks and canned coffee, a closet filled with school uniforms and various sets of casual clothing, a desk with a laptop, lamp, and an empty glass sitting in a coaster, a television, and of course, a bed. Smiling despite herself, Elizabeth sat on the edge of the mattress and patted the spot beside her. Makoto raised a brow but said nothing, sitting beside Elizabeth. "Should I assume your 'small request' will be similar to the one you made last time you came to my room?" Makoto asked.

"Not at all. Though the thought did cross my mind…" Elizabeth's smile fell down to a small grin. "But I'm afraid that if my master found out, he would give me a much harsher scolding than when-" She stopped before the truth could come out, and her face fell completely as she looked down and took hold of his hand. "My request is actually a simple one; I would like to spend some time with you, just the two of us."

Makoto gave a small, wry smile, then tilted his head a little to the right, causing a bit of the eye hidden behind his hair to be revealed. "I get it now." He straightened when Elizabeth gave him an inquiring look and continued, "You said you were going to stay on your side the last time I saw you, but then you invited me to a private location so we could spend time together."

"_It's somewhat true, but somewhat incorrect…"_ Elizabeth thought. _"But it is an excuse I can use."_ She realized a second a later. Scooting forward and mustering the best believable smile she could, she nodded once. "It seems you have seen right through my master plan. This entire event had nothing to do with my younger sister and I was just waiting for the perfect moment to have you all to myself."

"So are you going to tell me what's really going on, or will I find myself in Club Velvet everytime you're troubled?"

"Huh?" She looked up at Makoto in surprise, only to see that he was giving her a calm, serious, look.

"You've been acting strange all night- you're way more energetic and happy than usual, but you've been giving me weird looks and making strange comments all night. And, this-" Makoto gestured to his room with his free hand and held up their clasped hands at the same time. "-Isn't something you would do just to spend time with me. You would've asked me to take you to another interesting place like you normally do. What's wrong?" For a moment, he wanted to say that by doing this she was contradicting her earlier statement about 'staying on her own side', but for now he kept it to himself.

Elizabeth's expression darkened, and she closed her eyes for a moment as if to collect herself. Then, she gently guided the both of them further towards the center of the bed, allowing Makoto a moment to adjust so could lean back on the headboard with the pillows comfortably behind him. Once he was settled, Elizabeth pondered what to do for a moment before resting her head on his shoulder, letting her free hand rest on his chest. A moment passed as she felt the steady thumping beneath her palm, and then she began speaking quietly.

"I believe you're aware of this already, but we residents of the Velvet Room do not necessarily experience the flow of time the same as you humans do." She pursed her lips for a moment and let out a small hum. "I suppose the simplest explanation is that I am not the same Elizabeth as the one currently in your world. It has been many years since you were my guest in the Velvet Room." Makoto's eyes widened, but Elizabeth continued, her voice barely above a whisper. "Despite what I said in the past about ending our relationship, the truth is that it had already affected me deeply, to the point where my duties in the Velvet Room were effected as well after your journey ended." Closing her eyes as Makoto let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, she broke the silence of the room once again as she finished her explanation. "The truth is that I wanted see you again." She admitted quietly. _"Memories and prayers at a grave alone could not abate the heartache I felt. And even though I could easily defeat Erebus as often as was required, I haven't made much progress in my journey to free you from your fate."_

Makoto took a deep breath and sighed. "So I take it you can't leave the Velvet Room on your own to see an old guest once you've moved on from them?" Elizabeth remained silent, causing him to look up at the ceiling. _"She may not know much about my world, but I don't know much about hers either."_ He closed his eyes and gently rubbed her arm, and she held onto him tighter. _"I wonder how long it's been since she last saw me."_ He let his head lean back till it lightly hit the headboard behind him and then said, "Well, we should make the most of the time we have for now."

"Do you have something specific in mind?" Elizabeth asked.

For a long time, Makoto talked about himself, how he'd been spending his time at school and at the dorm, his progress through Tartarus, his interactions with his friends and the people he'd been meeting, and answered any and all questions Elizabeth had about anything she didn't immediately understand. He talked and talked and talked, until he started yawning between sentences and then mid sentence until finally, he fell asleep when Elizabeth stopped asking questions and the two drifted into silence.

Elizabeth fell asleep at some point too, because when she woke up she was no longer with Makoto.

Instead, she was in the Velvet Room, laying down on the couch. Igor was nowhere in sight, but Margaret was instead sitting in his chair. "Hello, Sister."

Elizabeth stood and gave a polite nod.

"How did the competition go?"

"Spectacularly, if you must know. Lavenza and I agreed that we both had a wonderful guest and decided not to let the trivial argument between us continue anymore." She said concisely, turning on her heel and walking to the exit.

"Speaking of your guests, I sent your guest back to his time and closed the Clubs the two of you had been using."

Elizabeth turned back to look over her shoulder. "You have my thanks, even though I could've taken care of such a small matter myself." It came out a little backhanded, but the tone was lost on Margaret. Elizabeth had wanted to say goodbye to her guest properly, and she knew that her sister knew that.

When Margaret didn't respond immediately, Elizabeth turned away from her and continued to the exit.

"Elizabeth."

Just when she was about to open the door back to the real world, her sister called out to her again.

"If or when you are able to free that young man from his fate, what will you do?"

Elizabeth turned around to face her sister fully, placing both hands on her hips. "I beg your pardon?"

Margaret stood and crossed the distance between them, not losing any amount of composure as she came to a stop in front of her younger sister. "Do you intend to live as a human once you've completed your journey?" She asked plainly, narrowing her gaze.

"I suppose I will try, for a time." Elizabeth answered. "But before I can make plans for the far future, I have to succeed in the near."

Margaret closed her eyes and nodded slowly. "Very well." Then, she stepped past Elizabeth and opened the door for her. "As long as you don't give up."

"Thank you, Margaret." Elizabeth said as she stepped out into the back alleys behind Paulownia Mall.

They parted without another word between them, and Elizabeth hoped that one day her sister would understand the journey she was on. It might've been a long time ago that the two had talked about what a life away from the Velvet Room could be like, but it was never a topic of conversation that was far from the front of their minds.

"_Perhaps she's just jealous that I was the first to go on my own journey through life and she wasn't."_ She thought inwardly. _"But one day, I hope to tell her more about it."_


End file.
